The different advantageous embodiments provide a system for network communication testing comprising a communication effects server, a number of radio emulators, a number of radios, and a wireless link simulator. The communication effects computer is configured to provide a number of communication network effects. The number of radio emulators have a number of Ethernet signal-in-space emulators configured to output a number of Ethernet packets to the communication effects server. The number of radios is configured to transmit and receive messages over a radio frequency. The wireless link simulator is configured to provide simulated distance between the number of radios using real-time changes in a simulation running on a number of platforms.